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Table of Contents
1
Lighting scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
About
How do I?
Lighting
3
Table of Contents
Lighting
4
Table of Contents
What went
wrong?
Lighting
5
Table of Contents
Reference
Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Create. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Create > Lights > Directional Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Create > Lights > Ambient Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Create > Lights > Area Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Create > Lights > Point Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Lighting
6
Table of Contents
Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Light nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Directional Light Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Ambient Light Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Area Light Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
mental ray Area Light Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Point Light Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Spot Light Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Volume Light Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
mental ray attributes (point, spot, directional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Light Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Shadow attributes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Glow nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Optical FX Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Lighting
7
Table of Contents
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Lighting
8
Lighting scenes
About
Related topics
Absorption, reflection, and refraction of light on page 9
Sources of direct light on page 15
Indirect (global) vs. direct illumination on page 13
Lighting
9
1 | Lighting scenes
Note
Absorption.
Light stops at the object and does not reflect
or refract. Objects appear dark or opaque.
Example: wood.
Lighting
10
1 | Lighting scenes
Refraction
Light goes through the object and bends at
an angle.
Example: diamond (greater angle) or water
(lesser angle)
See also Diffuse, Specular, and Glossy
refraction of light on page 12.
Diffuse reflection.
Diffuse surfaces reflect (scatter) light in
many angles.
Diffuse reflection accounts for more of the
color than any other type of distribution
because most objects are opaque and reflect
light diffusely.
Glossy reflection.
Glossy surfaces are actually specular
surfaces with micro surfaces at angles to
surface plane.
These micro surfaces reflect light not only
specularly but also diffusely (at angles very
close to the specular transmission), giving
the surface a glossy appearance.
Lighting
11
1 | Lighting scenes
Specular reflection.
Specular surfaces reflect light at the same as
the angle at which the light strikes the
surface.
Specular reflection gives objects a glossy or
mirror-like appearance.
Glossy refraction.
Glossy surfaces are actually specular
surfaces with micro surfaces at angles to
surface plane.
These micro surfaces refract light not only
specularly but also diffusely (at angles very
close to the specular transmission), giving
the surface a glossy appearance.
Lighting
12
1 | Lighting scenes
Specular refraction.
Specular surfaces reflect light at the same as
the angle at which the light strikes the
surface.
Related topics
Indirect (global) vs. direct illumination on page 13
Create a Maya light source on page 39
Local
illumination
is direct
illumination
from a light
source.
Lighting
13
1 | Lighting scenes
Examples:
A crack at the bottom of a door can cause light to spill into a room.
White walls reflect light from the light source to another surface in a
room.
A body of water can transmit light from its surface to the floor. (This
is an example of Caustics, a form of global illumination.)
Related topics
Absorption, reflection, and refraction of light on page 9
Global illumination on page 21
Caustics on page 22
Colour bleed on page 23
Final gather on page 29
High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI) on page 31
Participating media on page 24
Global illumination and caustics workflow on page 60
Lighting
14
1 | Lighting scenes
Lighting
15
1 | Lighting scenes
Directional Light
Ambient Light
Related topics
A typical direct light/shadow workflow on page 38
Create a Maya light source on page 39
Lighting
16
1 | Lighting scenes
Note
You cannot use a Maya area light to create a mental ray for Maya
area light.
Lighting
17
1 | Lighting scenes
Note
The IPR default light source that is added to the scene during
rendering operates much the same way as the Maya default light
source at render time.
The IPR default light source is not saved with the scene,
preventing you from accidentally adding the IPR default
light to their saved scene.
Light decay
In the real world, a lights brightness is strongest at the light source and
decreases or decays further away from the light source. In Maya, a lights
brightness decays only if decay is turned on (see Decay Rate on
page 99). The lights color, however, remains the same no matter how far
it is from the light source.
Image courtesy of The Art of Maya
In Maya, you can select a preset brightness decay rate by setting the Decay
Rate attribute. The preset brightness decay rates are usually good enough
to create most types of lighting effects. In some cases, however, you may
want to create a unique type of brightness decay.
Related topics
Move the Decay regions of a spot light on page 45
Interactively set decay regions on page 50.
Lighting
18
1 | Lighting scenes
Images
courtesy of
The Art of Maya
You can also create decay effects not seen in the real world. For example,
you can use a custom Intensity curve to make a spot lights brightness
increase further away from the light source, or you can use a custom Color
curve to make the color of a spot light change with distance.
Note
Related topics
Create custom spot light intensity or color decay on page 52.
Light linking
When you create a light source, the new light source illuminates all
surfaces in the scene by default (assuming you set the light sources
properties appropriately). Similarly, when you create a surface, all lights
in the scene illuminate the new surface.
You can link lights with surfaces so that only a specific light (or group of
lights) illuminates a specific surface (or group of surfaces), or, conversely,
only a specific object (or group of objects) receive illumination from a
specific light (or group of lights).
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
Light linking can help you render scenes more efficiently and quickly. You
can create light sets to control the relationship between lights and objects
in complex scenes.
Related topics
Determine a lights area of illumination on page 46.
Link light sources to surfaces on page 46
Link sets of lights and objects on page 46
Select objects illuminated by a specific light on page 48
Select lights illuminating a specific object on page 48
Note
You can also control how the glow from one surface affects the
intensity of anothers surface glow (see Create environments
that glow on page 58) or create illuminated fog for a particular
light (see Create illuminated fog on page 59).
To change the size of the glow object, see Adjust the size of the glow
object on page 58.
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
Related topics
Glow nodes on page 122 for details.
Global illumination
Note
You can render Global Illumination only with the mental ray for
Maya renderer.
Indirect illumination
mental ray for Maya creates Global illumination by tracing the paths of
photons and recording their bounce points in a photon map.
Caustics, focused light effects, are form of global illumination.
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
Related topics
Indirect (global) vs. direct illumination on page 13
Caustics on page 22
Colour bleed on page 23
Participating media on page 24
Photon tracing on page 25
Render with global illumination on page 64
Caustics
Refracted caustics
(Image by Lisa Williamson)
Reflected caustics
(Image by Dan Pressman)
Note
You can render Caustics only with the mental ray for Maya
renderer.
1 | Lighting scenes
Note
Related topics
Diffuse, Specular, and Glossy reflection on page 11
Diffuse, Specular, and Glossy refraction of light on page 12
Render with Caustics on page 65
Colour bleed
Color bleeding is a global illumination effect where reflected light projects
some of the objects diffusely (as opposed to specularly or glossily)
reflected color onto a nearby surface.
An objects diffuse color is partially reflected while the rest of the colors
are absorbed. The light that is reflected can project some of the diffuse
color onto the object next to it.
For example, a bright red apple on a pure white table cloth spills red
onto the table cloth.
Related topics
Absorption, reflection, and refraction of light on page 9
Tweak color bleed on page 65
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
Color bleeding
Participating media
Note
You can render participating media only with the mental ray for
Maya renderer.
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
Photon tracing
Photon maps
Tip
1 | Lighting scenes
Tip
Turn on caustics
You can save a photon map and reuse it, either in later frames in
a render, or in a different render at a later time.
Related topics
Photon tracing on page 26.
Photon tracing
Photon tracing creates a photon map (see Photon maps on page 25),
which is used by mental ray for Maya to render global illumination and
caustics.
Photons work as follows:
Photons bounce around in the scene until the Max Photon Depth is
met.
Each time a photon hits a surface, the value of the incoming energy is
stored in the photon map (provided Conditions for photon storage are
met).
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
The Max Photon Depth, the setting that controls the number of times
photon bounce around in scene, has not yet been met.
Directional light sources are not used. (Use either a point light for
interior volumes [because they emit in all directions] or a spot light.)
Photons have both a direction and a position; directional lights have
only a direction, so mental ray for Maya cant determine the position
of photons. As a result, too many photons are emitted but not
recorded in the photon map, rendering resources are wasted, and
artifacts can appear.
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
The interaction with the highest P-value is most likely to be chosen. So,
the ratios of the P-values determine what fraction of the incident photons
are refracted (transmitted), reflected, and absorbed, respectively. The
probabilities match the Maya materials in that derivation from Maya will
give satisfactory results.
Note first that photons are only stored when hitting a diffuse surface. So if
P1 is zero for a specific instance, no photons are stored. To improve
performance, you should disable the Globillum/Caustic Receiver.
Translucence determines what fraction of all refracted (transmitted)
photons are diffusely transmitted and translucenceFocus controls the
diffusity.
Absorption takes place only if the intensity of each color involved is less
than one and Diffuse and Reflectivity are within the prescribed range.
If the probability for specular reflection P2 is greater than zero, either a
non-zero Shinyness (isotropic), or non-zero spreadX and spreadY
(anisotropic) must be specified.
Examples
Diffuse green reflection with red diffuse transmission
absorbs
diffuse
color
transparency
translucence
on
1.5
0.0 1.0 0.0
1.0 0.0 0.0
1.0
Lighting
28
0.8
0.7 0.7 1.0
1.0 1.0 1.0
20.0
0.2
0.4 1.0 0.4
reflection
1 | Lighting scenes
Final gather
Note
Create very (or purely) diffuse scenes where the indirect illumination
changes slowly.
For example, an opening garage door that allows light to spill into the
garage, or dawn before the sun rises above the horizon.
Lighting
29
1 | Lighting scenes
To render with Final Gather, see Render with final gather on page 67.
You can reduce the number of Global Illum Photons, the Global Illum
Energy levels, and the number of Final Gather Rays resulting in less
rendering time, but more realistic lighting.
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
Related topics
Irradiance as the source of light on page 31
Render with final gather on page 67
Related topics
Final gather on page 29
Lighting
31
1 | Lighting scenes
You can use Final Gather to produce image-based lighting (or reflection)
with a High Dynamic Range Image (HDRI). Image-based lighting takes
the light (and light color) represented in an image you provide to
illuminate the scene. An HDRI image has an extra floating point value
associated with each pixel that is used to define the persistence of light at
that point.
A high-dynamic range image is like several images with different
exposures combined to show the full range of light (highlight and
shadow). In fact, some HDR images are created by compositing several
standard images of varying (bracketed) exposure in a special HDR
application. This is required to simulate the wide range of available light
in a single image -- an HDR image.
Tip
Using HDR images with Final Gather lets you provide extremely realistic
lighting.
To use HDRI images as sources of light and reflection, see the Whats New
guide.
Related topics
Render infinitely distant (sky-like) illumination and reflection on
page 70
Render finitely distant illumination and reflection on page 70
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
Shadow
Shadow in Maya
Shadows work with lights to add realism to your scenes. Shadows help to
define the location of objects, whether they rest on the ground or hover in
space, for example. Shadows can be soft-edged or hard-edged, and their
presence (or absence) can be used to add balance and contrast to objects in
your scene.
To create a shadow, a scene must contain a shadow-casting light, a
shadow-casting surface, and a shadow-catching surface. The light must
illuminate both the shadow-casting surface and the shadow-catching
surface.
Note
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
Related topics
Lighting
34
1 | Lighting scenes
No shadows
(default)
Depth map
Image of flowers
by Alan Opler
Depth map shadows produce very good results in almost all situations,
with marginal increase to rendering time.
Lighting
35
1 | Lighting scenes
A depth map represents the distance from a specific light to the surfaces
the light illuminates. A depth map is an data file that contains the depth
data rendered from a lights point of view. Each pixel in the depth map
represents the distance from the light to the nearest shadow casting
surface in a specific direction.
To create depth map shadows, see Render depth map shadows on
page 72.
If a scene contains a depth map shadow casting light source, Maya creates
a depth map file (stored as a Maya IFF File) for that light source during
rendering and uses the depth map file to determine which surfaces are in
shadow. In some cases, you can reduce rendering times by saving and
reusing a depth map. To find out how to reuse depth maps, see Reuse
depth maps on page 73.
Raytraced shadows
Image of flowers
by Alan Opler
Raytraced shadows can produce soft and transparent shadows but can be
very time consuming.
Raytracing is a type of shadow rendering where the path of individual
light rays are calculated from their source (the light) to their destination
(the camera).
Use raytraced shadows only to produce more physically accurate
shadows (like those in the real world). Common purposes include:
(for area lights only) where shadows blur and become lighter as they
increase in distance from the object
Lighting
36
1 | Lighting scenes
Note
Related topics
Shadow in Maya on page 33
Shadow catching
You can render out shadows separately from everything else. This is
important in many cases, for example, if you want to blur shadows. In a
composition you can soften, blur, brighten or change the color of shadows
to match whatever it is they are composited against.
To catch shadows, see Catch shadows for an alpha channel on page 75.
Related topics
Shadow in Maya on page 33
How do I?
Lighting
37
1 | Lighting scenes
A key light is the main light that illuminates the character or object. For
outdoor scenes in the real world, the key light is generally the sun.
A secondary light, often called a fill light because it fills in dark areas.
Softness or hardness
Hard light produces sharp shadow lines. Hard light sources typically
include light bulbs, bright sun, and flash lights.
Soft light is diffused and produces soft edges. Soft light sources typically
include light shining through fabric (like drapes), reflected light, or
sunlight diffused through clouds.
Color
Color and temperature are closely related. A red spot light shining on a
blue object may make it look black. Some common objects, like street
lamps may be tinted yellow.
Temperature
Soft orange light feels warmer than blue-green light.
Intensity
The intensity of a light source is how bright it is. For example, bright highnoon sunlight usually is more intense than a small electronic LED. The
intensity with which a light illuminates a subject appears to lessen (or
decay) as the subject moves farther away from the light.
Movement
Lighthouse lights rotate. Flashlights might swing from a rope.
Plan first to determine the look and feel of your scene and how its
reflected in the light sources chosen.
See Plan light sources on page 37.
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
You can create various types of light sources for your scene and set
attributes (options) that further define their characteristics. You can
adjust the qualities of the lights youve added by changing the settings
in the Attribute Editor and the Channel Box.
To add a light source to a scene, see Create a Maya light source on
page 39.
To adjust the attributes of a light source, see Adjust a light sources
attributes on page 40.
3
Move light sources in the scene and otherwise control them with
precision (optional).
To move a light source from one place to another, see Move a light
source to another location on page 41.
To control lights with precision, see Control light sources with
precision on page 42.
Note
As you light your scene and objects (and otherwise build your
scene), you visualize (preview render) the scene to check the
look and feel and accuracy of the way the light renders. To
preview render a scene, see Visualize interactively with IPR the
Rendering guide.
Cast shadows.
By default, lights do not cast shadows in Maya. You can specify which
lights cast shadows and choose which method Maya uses to generate
them: raytracing or depth maps.
To cast shadows, see Cast shadows on page 71.
Lighting
39
1 | Lighting scenes
Note
To create a light
From the Create > Lights menu, select the type of light you want
to create. The light is automatically added to your scene.
In the Hypershade, click the title of the Create Bar, select Create
Maya nodes, then select the type of light you want to create.
From the Create > Lights menu, click the next to the name of the
light for which you want to set options.
For a description of the light options, see the following for the light
you want to create:
on page 90.
on page 91.
on page 92.
on page 94.
Related topics
Sources of direct light on page 15
mental ray Area Light on page 17
Lighting
40
1 | Lighting scenes
Related topics
Sources of direct light on page 15
Create a Maya light source on page 39
Control light sources with precision on page 42
Click the lightShape tab, expand the mental ray section, then expand
the Area Light subsection.
Adjust the Area Light settings as desired, making sure to turn on the
Visible flag if you want to make the area light visible in the final
rendering. (Typically, light sources only illuminate a scene and are
not visible to the camera. If you want a light to be visible (a table lamp
or light bulb, for example), you need to make it explicitly visible. This
does not affect the light contribution of the light. )
See mental ray attributes (point, spot, directional) on page 108.
Related topics
mental ray Area Light on page 17
Lighting
41
1 | Lighting scenes
To direct the light emitted from a light source and otherwise position
features of lights (such as a cameras pivot point), see Position features of
a light interactively on page 42.
Directional
Area
Spot
Volume
You can interactively adjust the attributes of certain light sources in a view
using light manipulators. Light manipulators display in scene views (or,
in some cases, the light sources view, if you look through the light
source). You can:
Lighting
42
Click the Show Manipulator Tool button from the toolbox to see the
lights manipulator (or press the hotkey t).
1 | Lighting scenes
None
Center Of
Interest/
Origin
Pivot
Cone
Radius
Penumbra
Radius
Decay
Region
Origin/
Radius
Decay/
Select a light.
Related topics
Create a Maya light source on page 39
Related topics
Create a Maya light source on page 39
Lighting
43
1 | Lighting scenes
Related topics
Create a Maya light source on page 39
Cone Radius
Related topics
Create a Maya light source on page 39
Lighting
44
1 | Lighting scenes
Penumbra Radius
Related topics
Create a Maya light source on page 39
Related topics
Create a Maya light source on page 39
Lighting
45
1 | Lighting scenes
Related topics
Create a Maya light source on page 39
Related topics
Light linking on page 19
Note
Lighting
46
1 | Lighting scenes
Object-Centric
Light-Centric
In the left panel (Light Sources), select the lights you want to include
in a new set and select Edit > Create Light Set from Highlighted
Lights.
Maya adds a new light set to the bottom of the light list.
In the left panel (Illuminated Objects), select the objects you want to
include in a new set and select Edit > Create Object Set from
Highlighted Objects.
Maya adds a new object set to the bottom of the object list.
In the right panel (Objects), select the objects (or lights) you want to
add to the set and clear the selection of objects (or lights) you want to
remove from the set.
Lighting
47
1 | Lighting scenes
How do I? > Link lights and surfaces from the command line
Warning!
In Maya prompt or batch mode, the regular clean up process
that amalgamates the data from several lightlinker nodes into
one does not take place. This may result in several lightlinker
nodes when scenes are imported or referenced. To prevent this
behavior, import or reference scene data during an interactive
session. If prompt or batch mode must be used, ensure that you
invoke the lightlink -q command to first force the loading of
the module that contains the amalgamation routine.
Related topics
Light linking on page 19
Related topics
Light linking on page 19
Lighting
48
1 | Lighting scenes
Related topics
Light linking on page 19
Note
Lighting
49
1 | Lighting scenes
Depth map shadows also work, but you create shadows varying from
hard to soft. Adjust the filter size to control the uniform softness of the
shadow.
Related topics
Raytraced shadows on page 36
Create a Maya light source on page 39
Adjust decay
Tip
Lighting
50
Click the Index Manipulator until you can see the decay regions on
the spot lights icon. (To learn more about the Index Manipulator, see
Show, hide, or resize a light manipulator on page 42.)
1 | Lighting scenes
Tip
Drag the decay region rings to set start and end distances. If you want,
you can verify and fine-tune these values in the Attribute Editor.
Leave the Attribute Editor open and IPR render the scene so
you can make changes interactively to get the look you
want.
Apply a Light Fog (click the box next to Light Fog in the
Light Effects section of a spot lights Attribute Editor) to see
the results.
Related topics
Light decay on page 18
Lighting
51
1 | Lighting scenes
In the Light Effects section of the spot lights Attribute Editor, click the
Create button beside the Intensity Curve attribute.
Maya creates an Intensity Curve node and connects it to the Intensity
attribute.
In the Light Effects section of the spot lights Attribute Editor, click the
Create button beside the Color Curves attribute.
Lighting
52
1 | Lighting scenes
To view the attribute table for Color Curves and the Intensity
curve (after you create them)
Tip
When creating intensity and color curves for a light source, IPR
Render the scene or part of the scene to get instant feedback on
the changes you make to the lights intensity and color curves.
To edit points or entire curves, use the Graph editor. For more
information on the Graph editor, see the Animation guide.
Related topics
Light decay on page 18
Create a Maya light source on page 39
The green circle represents the cone boundary. Any objects outside this
circle are not lit by this spotlight. Camera tracking, tumbling, or dollying
work well in this view to help shine the spotlight exactly on the desired
area.
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
Select a Spot Light whose manipulators are displayed, then turn Barn
Doors on in the Attribute Editor.
In the Light Effects section of the spot lights Attribute Editor, turn on
Barn Doors.
Select Look Through Selected from the views Panels menu to look
through the selected light. (The Barn Doors manipulators are only
visible in the lights view.)
Four blue lines appear. These lines represent a rectangular boundary
for the spotlight. No light reaches the regions outside the blue lineboundaries.
Lighting
54
You can directly manipulate each of the four lines with the Move tool
to shift the boundaries. (Alternatively, you can enter precise numerical
values in the Attribute Editor.)
1 | Lighting scenes
Attributes are in degrees measured from the spotlight to the blue lineboundary. For instance, for an 80 degree spotlight, the four blue lineboundaries are 40 if the boundaries lie exactly at the spotlight border.
When you use the Barn Doors settings, the lightShape sample changes
at the top of the Attribute Editor.
If the penumbra value is set to 0 (the default) and Barn Doors is on,
this results in a very hard-edged look to the lighting. With a non-zero
penumbra value, the barn door effect is a smooth illumination of the
scene.
You can also verify the illumination by looking at the Light Shape and
Intensity Sample at the top of a spot lights Attribute Editor. These
change as you change the values for the spot light.
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1 | Lighting scenes
Default settings.
To return to the current view, select the view from the Panel menu.
Related topics
Create a Maya light source on page 39
Tip
Related topics
Lighting
56
Create a light for which you want to apply and position optical effects.
In the lights Attribute Editor, map the Optical FX utility to one of the
lights attributes (for example, click the box beside Color then select
Optical FX from the Glow Utilities tab in the Create Render Node
window).
1 | Lighting scenes
Create a Locator and place it anywhere in the scene (Create > Locator).
You can now move the locator anywhere in the scene and the optical
light effect moves with it.
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1 | Lighting scenes
Before.
After.
Related topics
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1 | Lighting scenes
To get the right glow and halo intensities using Shader Glow
Note
The Shader Glow nodes attributes are the same as the Optical
FXs attributes. See Optical FX Attributes on page 122.
Select a frame in which the halo and glow effects have the look you
want.
In the Shader Glows Attribute Editor, set the Glow Intensity and Halo
Intensity to the values for the glow intensity normalization factor and
halo intensity normalization factor.
Related topics
Note
To create fog that fills the entire scene, not just within the
illumination of a specific light, use the Env(iroment) Fog
Volumetric material.
In the Light Effects section of the lights Attribute Editor, click the map
button beside the Light Fog attribute.
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1 | Lighting scenes
Related topics
Make sure that at least one light source in the scene emits photons.
See Turn on photon emission for a light source on page 61.
Tip
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
Tip
Related topics
Global illumination on page 21
Caustics on page 22
Related topics
Depth map and raytraced shadows on page 34
1 | Lighting scenes
For more information on direct light sources, see Sources of direct light
on page 15.
To turn photon tracing
1
Repeat this procedure for every light source you want to emit
photons.
Related topics
Global illumination on page 21
Caustics on page 22
Photon maps on page 25
Photon tracing on page 26
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1 | Lighting scenes
In the Scene view, select the object for which you want to change
global illumination settings.
Related topics
Photon tracing on page 26
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Set the Global Illum Generating settings and/or the Global Illum
Receiving settings.
Related topics
Global illumination on page 21
Photon tracing on page 26
Set up mental ray for Maya raytracing on page 61
Flag objects to cast and receive photons on page 62
Tip
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
Related topics
Global illumination on page 21.
Troubleshoot:Global Illumination doesnt work or looks incorrect
on page 84.
In the mental ray section of that objects Attribute Editor, do any of the
following:
Related topics
Colour bleed on page 23
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1 | Lighting scenes
To render caustics
First, make sure at least one light source in your scene emits photons (see
Turn on photon emission for a light source on page 61).
Note
Tip
Related topics
Caustics on page 22.
Troubleshoot:Caustics dont work or look incorrect on page 85.
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1 | Lighting scenes
Tip
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1 | Lighting scenes
Change any of the following optional settings, which can have an effect
Tip
Related topics
Final gather on page 29
Store and reuse Final Gather results on page 69
Combine global illumination with Final Gather on page 69
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1 | Lighting scenes
You cannot reuse Final Gather results if you change final gather
settings. In this case, the following Output window messages
indicate that the previous results cant be used:
Make sure Final Gather is turned on and the attributes are set. See
Render with final gather on page 67.
Render.
Related topics
Final gather on page 29
Combine global illumination with Final Gather on page 69
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1 | Lighting scenes
Turn on the Physical attribute for each light source that emits photons
for global illumination, and set the Decay Rate to Quadratic.
See Turn on photon emission for a light source on page 61.
Related topics
Final gather on page 29
Store and reuse Final Gather results on page 69
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Render with Final Gather (see Render with final gather on page 67),
with the Final Gather Rays set to between 50 and 100.
Cast shadows
Note
In hardware X-Ray mode (Shading > Shade Options > XRay), all objects are transparent, and no hardware shadows
display.
In the Render Stats section of the surfaces Attribute Editor, make sure
Casts Shadows is turned on.
Related topics
Shadow in Maya on page 33
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1 | Lighting scenes
Note
Related topics
Shadow in Maya on page 33
Tips
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1 | Lighting scenes
Tip
Note
mental ray does not handle shadow maps on scaled light sources
very well. Proportional scaling for the light should be used
instead.
Related topics
Shadow in Maya on page 33
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1 | Lighting scenes
If you are...
Do this...
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
If you are...
Do this...
Related topics
Shadow in Maya on page 33
Render
Related topics
Shadow in Maya on page 33
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1 | Lighting scenes
Select the objects(s) in the scene casting shadows. In the Render Stats
section of the objects Attribute Editor, turn Primary Visibility off.
Select View > Image Plane > Import Image from the current view.
Select an Image File or Texture from the Type drop-down menu, then
click the folder icon next to Image Name to load an image plane into
the view.
Note
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1 | Lighting scenes
Position the object you want to cast shadows onto the stand-in
geometry on the grid plane.
Create and position lights in the scene. Turn on the Use Depth Map
Shadows attribute in the Shadows section of the lights Attribute
Editor to see the shadows in the rendered result.
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1 | Lighting scenes
10 Render the scene in Render View (for best results, do not IPR render).
11 Adjust the location of the geometry, the lights, and the Use
Background attributes if necessary and then re-render the scene at any
time.
Remove shadows
For more information about shadows, see Shadow on page 33.
Removing unnecessary shadows can help reduce rendering times. You
can either remove all shadows produced by a specific light, or all shadows
cast by a specific surface. To determine which objects cast shadows, see
Control which objects cast shadows on page 71.
To remove all shadows produced by a specific light
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1 | Lighting scenes
In the Render Stats section of the surfaces Attribute Editor (or in the
Render tab of the surfaces Attribute Spread Sheet), turn off Casts
Shadows.
Note
What
went
wrong?
You can make all shadow casting surfaces cast shadows from all
shadow casting lights, even if they are not linked together, by
turning off Shadows Obey Light Linking in the Render Options
section of the Render Global Settings window (Windows >
Render Globals).
If light linking is desired, make sure the light is linked to the object.
Check that the object is assigned to a shading group and that this
shading group has a surface material.
1 | Lighting scenes
Shadows
where the first line turns off the automatic generation of near/far clipping
planes, and the last two lines let you set the near/far clipping plane values
appropriately.
1 | Lighting scenes
Make sure Cast Shadows or Receive Shadows are turned on for the
object.
If a raytraced shadow is expected, check that the Ray Depth Limit (for
the light and in Render Global Settings window) are turned up to a
sufficient limit.
To get the best quality when Use Dmap Auto Focus is turned on,
make sure the large floors do not cast shadows. When large floors cast
shadows, the region for the shadow map covers a much larger area so
the shadow map precision is lower for the areas of attention and may
shift over an animation.
Try turning off Use Dmap Auto Focus and determine the constant
angle of focus for the light that works throughout the entire
animation.
Troubleshoot:Jagged edges
(With area lights and depth map shadows)
If an object has a Ramp Shader (adjusted to resemble a toon shader)
assigned to it and is lit by an Area light with Depth Map Shadows, the
shader's lines may produce jagged edges. To correct this, increase the
Dmap Filter Size (Depth Map Shadows Attributes in the Area light's
Attribute Editor). If thats not enough to get rid of the jagged edges,
increase the Dmap Bias attribute as well.
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82
Turn off Use Light Position (for directional lights only), turn on Use
Dmap Auto Focus for the light, and turn off Casts Shadows for any
objects (especially large objects) in the scene that do not need to cast
shadows (they can still receive shadows).
Increase Dmap Filter Size (to the lowest value that produces acceptable
results) for the shadow casting light (this makes shadow edges softer).
1 | Lighting scenes
Increase Fog Shadow Samples (to the lowest value that produces
acceptable results) for the shadow casting light.
Turn on Use Mid Dist Dmap for the shadow casting light that
illuminates the surface.
Increase Dmap Bias by a small amount for the shadow casting light
that illuminates the surface.
Decrease Dmap Bias by a small amount for the shadow casting light.
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Increase Shadow Rays (to the lowest value that produces acceptable
results) for the shadow casting light.
Increase U Divisions Factor and V Divisions Factor for the surface (to
the lowest values that produce acceptable results).
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84
Global illumination is not turned on. If you did not use the global
illumination presets (see Render with global illumination on
page 64), it might be turned off.
Raytracing is not turned on. If you did not use the global illumination
presets (see Render with global illumination on page 64), it might be
turned off.
1 | Lighting scenes
If caustics is not turned on, too many photons may have migrated
from the global illumination photon map to the caustics photon map.
For more information, see GI photon maps vs. caustic photon maps
on page 25.
1 | Lighting scenes
Photon tracing
No view-dependent information
During the photon tracing phase, some view-dependent information (filter
sizes, which are used in the bump and almost all texture nodes) is not
available. You should turn off view-dependent filtering in all these nodes
by setting Filter to zero and Filter Offset to a small positive value.
Lighting
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the receiving object has a strange shape as seen from the light source
and mental ray for Maya is casting rays in places where they cannot
be stored.
1 | Lighting scenes
Reference Menus
Create
Image of flowers
by Alan Opler
Use a directional light to simulate a very distant point light source (for
example, the sun as viewed from the surface of the Earth).
A directional light shines evenly in one direction only. Its light rays are
parallel to each other, as if emitted perpendicular from an infinitely large
plane.
Note
Related topics
Move the pivot point on page 44
Light specific surfaces on page 46
Directional Light Attributes on page 97
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1 | Lighting scenes
Cast Shadows
If on, the light produces either depth map shadows (for directional,
point, or spot lights) or raytraced shadows (for ambient lights). Cast
Shadows if off by default. See also Shadow attributes.
Tip
Depth map shadows are typically used for quick render tests
when the quality is not important.
Shadow color
See Shadow Color on page 113.
Image of flowers
by Alan Opler
Related topics
Move the center of interest or origin on page 43
Move the pivot point on page 44
Light specific surfaces on page 46
Ambient Light Attributes on page 98.
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1 | Lighting scenes
Image of flowers
by Alan Opler
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
Area lights are physically basedthere is no need for a decay option. The
angles formed with the area light and the point that is shaded determine
the illumination. As the point moves further away from the area light, the
angle decreases and illumination decreases, much like decay.
Use an area light to simulate the rectangular reflections of windows on
surfaces.
Related topics
Control area lights on page 49.
Area Light Attributes on page 99
Intensity
See Intensity on page 98.
Color
See Color on page 97.
Decay rate
See Decay Rate on page 101.
Cast Shadows
See Cast Shadows on page 88.
Shadow color
See Shadow Color on page 113.
Image of flowers
by Alan Opler
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A point light shines evenly in all directions from an infinitely small point
in space. Use a point light to simulate an incandescent light bulb or a star.
Use a point light to simulate an incandescent light bulb.
Related topics
Move the center of interest or origin on page 43
Move the pivot point on page 44
Light specific surfaces on page 46
Point Light Attributes on page 101
Intensity
See Intensity on page 98.
Color
See Color on page 97.
Decay rate
See Decay Rate on page 101.
Cast Shadows
See Cast Shadows on page 88.
Shadow color
See Shadow Color on page 113.
Image of flowers
by Alan Opler
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
Related topics
Move the Cone Radius of a spot light on page 44
Move the Penumbra Radius of a spot light on page 44
Move the Decay regions of a spot light on page 45
Light specific surfaces on page 46
Move barn doors (shutters) of a spot light on page 45
Adjust decay on page 50
Adjust a spot lights light circle on page 53
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1 | Lighting scenes
Shadow color
See Shadow Color on page 113.
Image of flowers
by Alan Abler
Tip
Lighting
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1 | Lighting scenes
Related topics
Move the center of interest or origin on page 43
Move the pivot point on page 44
Light specific surfaces on page 46
Volume Light Attributes on page 102.
Intensity
See Intensity on page 98.
Color
See Color on page 97.
Cone angle
See Cone Angle on page 102.
Penumbra angle
See Penumbra Angle on page 102.
Drop off
See Dropoff on page 102.
Decay rate
See Decay Rate on page 101.
Cast Shadows
See Cast Shadows on page 88.
Shadow color
See Shadow Color on page 113.
1 | Lighting scenes
For more information on light links, see Light linking on page 19.
Panel menus
Lighting
1 | Lighting scenes
This is useful when you have already baked the lighting into a
scene and you don't want any additional hardware lighting to be
added to the scene in the modeling viewports.
Tip
Note
This menu item can be turned off by selecting any of the menu
items above it.
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1 | Lighting scenes
Nodes
Light nodes
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1 | Lighting scenes
Intensity
Represents the brightness of the light. A light with an Intensity value
of 0 produces no light. A light with a negative Intensity value removes
light from a scene in the area of the lights influence. The slider range
is 0 to 10, but you can type in a larger value for a brighter light (for
example, 20). The default value is 1.
Tip
Illuminates by Default
If on, the light illuminates all objects and is included in the
defaultLightSet. If off, the light only illuminates objects to which it is
linked. Illuminates by Default is on by default.
Emit Diffuse and Emit Specular
Emit Diffuse and Emit Specular are on by default. Turning them off
turns off the diffuse or specular shading results for the light.
Note
The results do not show in the scene view. To see the results, test
render in Render View.
Emit Diffuse ON
Emit Specular ON
Emit Diffuse ON
Emit Specular OFF
Default setting
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1 | Lighting scenes
Type
See Type on page 97.
Color
See Color on page 97.
Intensity
See Intensity on page 98.
Illuminates by Default
See Illuminates by Default on page 98.
Ambient Shade
The proportion of directional light to omnidirectional (ambient) light.
The slider range is 0 (light comes from all directions) to 1 (light comes
only from the position of the light). The default value is 0.45.
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The Decay Rate also controls how fog brightness decreases with
distance from the light source.
Tip
No Decay
Linear
Quadratic
Cubic
1 | Lighting scenes
Note
If youre using Mayas Ray trace Shadows, make sure your Ray
Depth Limit is greater than 1 so that reflected shadows appear.
Type
See Type on page 97.
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1 | Lighting scenes
Color
See Color on page 97.
Intensity
See Intensity on page 98.
Illuminates by Default
See Illuminates by Default on page 98.
Emit Diffuse and Emit Specular
See Emit Diffuse and Emit Specular on page 98.
Decay Rate
See Decay Rate on page 99.
Cone Angle
The angle (in degrees) from edge to edge of the spot lights beam. The
valid range is 0.006 to 179.994. The default value is 40.
Penumbra Angle
The angle (in degrees) from the edge of the spot lights beam over
which the intensity of the spot light falls off linearly to zero. The valid
range is -179.994 to 179.994. The slider range is -10 to 10. The default
value is 0.
For example, if the Cone Angle value is 50 and the Penumbra Angle
value is 10, the spot light has an effective spread of 70 (50 + 10 + 10)
degrees; however, the spot light intensity decreases to 0 between the
angles of 50 and 70 degrees. If the Cone Angle value is 50 and the
Penumbra Angle value is -10, the spot light has an effective spread of
50 degrees and the spot light intensity decreases to 0 between the
angles of 30 and 50 degrees.
Dropoff
Controls the rate at which light intensity decreases from the center to
the edge of the spot light beam. The valid range is 0 to . The slider
range is 0 to 255.
Typical values are between 0 and 50. Values of 1 or less produce
almost identical results (no discernible intensity decrease along the
radius of the beam). The default value is 0 (no dropoff).
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Type
See Type on page 97.
Color
See Color on page 97.
Intensity
See Intensity on page 98.
Illuminates by Default
See Illuminates by Default on page 98.
Emit Diffuse and Emit Specular
See Emit Diffuse and Emit Specular on page 98.
Light shape
This determines the volumetric shape of the light. Select a light shape
from the drop-down list: Box, Sphere, Cylinder, or Cone. Sphere is the
default.
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There is a volume
light and an
ambient light in
this scene.
The volume light
is being used to
simulate the light
of the candle,
which can only
illuminate objects
for a finite
distance.
By adjusting the
scale of volume
light, you can
control how far
the light reaches
into the scene.
To control the
falloff within this
light, weve added
indices to the
color range
attribute's ramp
control.
You can pinpoint
where the volume
light ends near
the top - its
where the detail in
the image
lessens.
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Selected Position
Position of the active color entry in the ramp.
Selected Color
The color of the active color entry.
Interpolation
Controls the way colors blend in the ramp. Select an option from the
drop-down list: None, Linear, Smooth, Spline. The default is Linear.
None
Linear
Smooth
Spline
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Down Axis
The light direction is down the central axis of the light. It behaves like
a directional light.
Note
Arc
Use this option to create a partial sphere, cone, or cylinder light shape
by specifying a degree of rotation. Values can range from 0 to 360
degrees. The most common settings are 180 and 360, the default. 180 is
similar to slicing the light volume in half and 360 is the full light. This
option does not apply to the box light shape.
Cone End Radius
This option applies to the cone light shape only. This is the relative
size of one end of the cone. At a value of 1.0 it is a cylinder, while at 0
it is a cone.
Emit Ambient
If turned on, light affects surfaces in a multi-directional manner. The
default is off.
Note
Penumbra attributes
Penumbra
This section applies to cone and cylinder light shapes only. This contains
attributes for managing the penumbra, the area of partial illumination
around the shadow border and the light. Using the graph you can adjust
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1 | Lighting scenes
the spread and the dropoff of the light. The left side of the graph
represents the intensity at the outer edge of the cone or cylinder and the
right side represents the intensity from the center of the beam to the edge.
Click the handle to edit
the entry.
Drag the handle to
move the entry.
Click to delete the
entry.
Click in the graph to add a
new entry or drag to add
and interactively position a
new entry.
Selected Position
This value affects the active entry in the graph and is represented on
the x-axis of the graph.
Selected Value
This value affects the active entry in the graph and is represented on
the y-axis of the graph.
Multiple Positions at
different Values on
the penumbra graph
can be used to
create rings of light.
This could be used
to simulate the light
effect of a flash light.
Interpolation
This controls the way the values are calculated. Select an option from
the drop-down list: None, Linear, Smooth, Spline. The default is
Linear.
None
Linear
Smooth
Spline
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Linear
interpolation
No interpolation
Smooth
interpolation
Spline
interpolation
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If hot spots (blown out) areas occur, try decreasing these values
equally to around 4000 or 5000.
Exponent
This is similar to decay -- the intensity increases as the value
decreases. To increase the chances that indirect light will reach a
greater distance, decrease the value.
Visible noise can occur with values less than 1. The default (2)
simulates natural (quadratic) decay, but violates the conservation-ofenergy law (that happens in the natural world), so bright spots from
distant light sources could occur in unexpected locations.
Physical
Ensures shading models in the scene behave in a physically correct
way. That is, they do not amplify light be emitting more energy than
was received. This is particularly important if you are combining
Global Illumination with Final Gather.
Caustic Photons
The number of photons to be generated by the light source and
therefore stored in the photon map. The default, 10000, is suitable for
quick, low-quality caustics. To improve the quality of caustic effects,
increase this number, incrementally, to 20000 to start (render time will
increase as a result). Generally, 100000 produces medium quality and
1000000 produces highly accurate effects.
Light Effects
The Light Effects attributes control the appearance of illuminated (light)
fog and optical light effects. (For information on optical effects, see
Glows, halos, and lens flares on page 20 and Optical FX Attributes on
page 122.)
Note
Avoid instanced lights when you create light fog. Copy the
lights instead of instancing. For light fog, make sure that light
fog is duplicated independently of the light because when you
duplicate a light, its light fog is not duplicated with it.
Light Fog
Light Fog attributes are only available for point, spot and volume lights.
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When you click the map button beside Light Fog, Maya creates a light
fog node and connects it to the light. A fog icon, basically an extension
to the light icon, appears in the views. After you have connected Light
Fog to a light, click the button at the end of the field to access the light
fog attributes.
The following examples show a Light Fog applied to a Spot light
using the default settings of 1.0, and the Fog Spread and Fog
Intensity setting changed to 2.0.
Note
Fog Spread
Only for spot lights.
Determines how the fog brightness varies across the spot light or
point light beam. A high Fog Spread value produces fog with uniform
brightness shooting from the cone of a spot light. A low Fog Spread
value produces fog which is brighter at the center of the spot light
beam and foggier at the end.
The slider range for a spot light is 0 to 5. The default value is 1.
Fog Type
Only for point lights.
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Normal
Linear
Exponential
Select a Fog Type from the drop-down menu. Fog types include:
Normal
Linear
Exponential
Fog Radius
Only for point lights.
The Fog Radius value determines how much the fog spreads in every
direction from a point lights beam. The spot or point lights Decay
Rate controls how fog brightness decreases with distance from the
light source.
The slider range for a point light is 0 to 10.The default value is 1.
Fog Intensity
The brightness of the fog. (The lights Intensity also influences the
brightness of illuminated fog.) The slider range is 0 to 5. The default
value is 1.
Light Glow
The Light Glow attribute is available for point, spot, area and Volume
lights only.
When you click the map button beside Light Glow, Maya creates an
optical FX node and connects it to the light (a glow, halo, or lens flare).
An optical FX icon attached to the light icon appears in the views. See
Optical FX Attributes on page 122 for details about setting these
attributes.
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Intensity Curve
Only for spot lights.
Creates an intensity curve used to control the intensity decay for a
spot light. This attribute is only available for spot lights. See also
Create custom spot light intensity or color decay and Edit custom
intensity and color decay.
Color Curves
Only for Spot lights.
Creates a color curve used to control how a spot lights color changes
with distance. This attribute is only available for spot lights.
See also Create custom spot light intensity or color decay and Edit
custom intensity and color decay.
Barn doors
The Barn Doors attributes are located in the Light Effects section of a
spot lights Attribute Editor and are used to square off the circular
shape of a cone.
Note
You can adjust barn door interactively. See Apply barn doors
(shutters) to a beam of light on page 54.
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1 | Lighting scenes
Related topics
Light decay on page 18
Decay Rate on page 99
Note
Shadow attributes
For more information about shadows, see Shadow on page 33.
Shadow Color
The color of shadows produced by the light. Use a colored shadow to
simulate shadows produced by transparent, colored surfaces (for
example, colored glass). The default setting is black.
You can also map textures to shadows to create interesting effects. The
following example shows a Checker texture mapped to the Shadow
Color of a Spot Light.
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1 | Lighting scenes
If you decide to map a texture that has color (such as the Stucco
texture in the following example), change the textures color to black
and white if desired.
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Note
If Use Mid Dist Dmap is off, dark spots or streaks may appear
on illuminated shadow casting surfaces because the distance
from the light to the surface is greater than the stored depth
value and therefore in shadow. This type of artifacting happens
because of the finite resolution of some dmaps and may be
particularly noticeable for a curved surface, or for a surface
illuminated by light not perpendicular to the surface.
A pixel in the dmap can be forced to approximate a large area of
the scene. Although you can reduce this effect by increasing the
Dmap Resolution, you are only making the problem smaller.
This also increases rendering times. A better solution is to turn
on Use Mid Dist Dmap.
If on, for each pixel in the depth map, Maya calculates the distance
from the light to the nearest shadow casting surface and the distance
from the light to the next nearest shadow casting surface and averages
them.
If the distance from the light to another shadow casting surface is
greater than the depth map distance, that surface is in shadow. Use
Mid Dist Dmap is on by default.
Note
If Use Mid Dist Dmap is on, Maya calculates the middle distance
between shadow casting surfaces only (that is, surfaces which
have their Casts Shadows attribute on).
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If you want very soft shadows, use a low dmap resolution, then
adjust this setting.
Tip
Dmap Bias
Offsets the depth map toward or away from the light. Adjust the
Dmap Bias only if you encounter the following problems and cannot
resolve them by adjusting other attributes:
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The slider range is 0 to 1, but you can type in a higher value. The
default value is 0.001.
Fog Shadow Intensity
Controls the darkness of shadows appearing in illuminated (light) fog.
The valid range is 1 to 10. The default value is 1.
Fog Shadow Samples
Controls the graininess of shadows appearing in illuminated (light)
fog. Increasing Fog Shadows Samples also increases rendering times,
so set it to the lowest value that produces acceptable results. Shadows
that are cast from very narrow objects into illuminated fog may shift
during an animation. In this case, increase the Vol Shadow Samples
value. The default value is 20.
Disk Based Dmaps
Lets you save a lights depth maps to disk and reuse them during
subsequent renders. By saving depth maps to disk, and reusing them
later, you can decrease the time it takes to render the scene (see
Reuse depth maps on page 73). Depth maps are saved in the
renderDate/depth directory.
Off
Overwrite
Existing
Dmap(s)
Reuse Existing
Dmap(s)
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Tip
Dmap Name
The name of the depth map file that Maya saves to disk. The name of
the depth map may also include the scene name (if Dmap Scene Name
is on), the light name (if Dmap Light Name is on), and the frame
extension (if Dmap Frame Ext is on). Dmap Name is only available if
Disk Based Dmaps is set to either Overwrite Existing Dmap(s) or
Reuse Existing Dmap(s). Depth maps are saved in the renderDate/
depth directory. The default depth map name is depthmap.
Dmap Scene Name
Adds the scene name to the name of the depth map file that Maya
saves to disk. Dmap Scene Name is off by default.
Dmap Light Name
Adds the light name to the name of the depth map file that Maya
saves to disk. Dmap Light Name is on by default.
Dmap Frame Ext
If on, Maya saves a depth map for each frame, and adds the frame
extension to the name of the depth map file. If off, Maya saves one
depth map file for the entire animation and does not add the frame
extension to the name of the depth map file. Dmap Frame Ext is off by
default.
Dmap Use Macro
Only available when Disk Based Dmaps is set to Reuse Existing Dmap(s).
The path and name of a macro script that Maya runs to update a
depth map when it reads it from disk. Dmap Use Macro is useful
mainly for troubleshooting.
The macro gets all the information for creating or processing depth
maps on disk. The following example is written in Perl. The macro
post-processes or creates the maps. You can modify or create maps of
any width or height. Maya looks at the sizes specified in the IFF Zdepth map file and uses them. The macro is called each time a map is
going to be read from disk. For example, the map may be called
several times in the case of a point light, which can use up to six maps.
The arguments are named so that new arguments can be added easily.
The arguments currently supplied to the script by Maya are:
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mapname=FullPathMapName,middistmapname=FullPathMidDistMapName,
lightname=LightShapeNameUsed,pathname=ShadowMapPathUsed,
readanimextname=RedExtUsed,curranimextname=CurrExt,
lastdumpanimextname=lastExtDumped,bias=biasValue
"\tmapname = ",$mapname,"\n";
"\tmiddistmapname = ",$middistmapname,"\n";
"\tlightname = ",$lightname,"\n";
"\tpathname = ",$pathname,"\n";
"\treadanimextname = ",$readanimextname,"\n";
"\tcurranimextname = ",$curranimextname,"\n";
"\tlastdumpanimextname = ",$lastdumpanimextname,"\n";
"\tbias = ",$bias,"\n";
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maps in certain directions, you can help reduce rendering times. For
example, if these is a point light at the top of the scene, and all
shadow casting objects are below the light, you can turn off Use Y+
Dmap (assuming the scene uses a Y-up coordinate system) and Maya
does not generate a depth map in the direction of the positive Y axis
(up).
1 | Lighting scenes
is set to 1, the shadow will only be visible on the ground plane. If the
ray depth is set to 2, the shadow will be visible on both the ground
plane and the reflected plane.
reflection plane
shadow-casting
sphere
shadow-catching
plane
light
eye
Glow nodes
Optical FX Attributes
The Optical FX Attributes control the appearance of glows, halos, and lens
flares.
For more information about optical effects, see Glows, halos, and lens
flares on page 20.
Active
Turns the optical effect on or off. Active is on by default.
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Lens Flare
Simulates a bright light source illuminating the surfaces of a cameras
lens. The flare intensity is determined by the Flare Intensity value.
The size of the flare circles is relative to the field of view of the
camera. Lens Flare is off by default. Check Lens Flare on to access
Lens Flare Attributes.
Glow Types
The type of glow the light produces when viewed directly. Click the
arrow to access available glow types from the drop-down menu.
A light does not need glow to illuminate objects when the scene is
rendered, however a light does need glow to be visible by the camera
when the scene is rendered. The default Glow Type is Linear.
The following examples show a yellow glow (Glow Color) and all
other Glow attributes left at the default settings.
None
No glow appears.
Linear
Exponential
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Ball
Lens Flare
Rim Halo
Halo Types
The type of halo the light produces when viewed directly. Halo is
similar to Glow, except that the fall off is more gradual and different
fall-off types are available. The default setting is None. Click the
arrow to access the drop-down menu.
The following show the different Halo types with the default Linear
Glow Type, a red Halo Color, and the Halo Spread set to 0.75.
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None
No halo appears.
Linear
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Exponential
Ball
Lens Flare
Rim Halo
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Radial Frequency
Controls the smoothness of glow radial noise (see Glow Radial Noise).
The slider range is 0 to 5, but you can enter values up to infinity. The
default value is 0.5.
Star Points
Represents the number of points on glow star filter effects (see Glow
Star Level). The following examples show a Star Points value of 20
and a Star Points value of 1 which produces a comet-like effect. Use
the Rotation attribute to adjust the comets tail.
The slider range is 0 to 10 but you can enter values up to infinity. The
default value is 4.
Note
Rotation
Rotates glow noise and star effects (Glow Noise, Glow Radial
Noise, and Glow Star Level) about the center of the light. The
slider range is 0 to 360 (degrees) but you can enter values up to
infinity. The default value is 0.
Glow Attributes
Glow Color
The color of the lights glow. Click the color swatch to open the Color
Chooser and select a color if desired.The default setting is white.
Glow Intensity
Also accessible through the materials Special Effects attributes (see
the Shading guide for details). Controls the glow brightness. As the
Glow Intensity value increases, so does the apparent size of the glow
effect. A negative Glow Intensity value subtracts from other glows.
(The lights Decay Rate controls how the glow brightness decreases
with distance.) The slider range is 0 to 10, but you can enter values up
to infinity. The default value is 1.
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Glow Spread
Controls the size of the glow effect. Negative values can have odd but
sometimes useful effects. The slider range is 0 to 5. The default value
is 1.
Glow Noise
Controls the strength of two-dimensional noise applied to the glow.
The noise is generated on a plane centered at the location of the light
and always oriented towards the camera. The slider range is 0 to 1.
The default value is 0.
To create the illusion of illuminated smoke around a glowing light
source, set the Glow Noise value to about 0.5 and slowly animate the
Noise Uoffset and Noise Voffset values. The smoke appears to slowly
drift by the light.
Tip
The following example shows how you can create a moody night sky
simply by adjusting a few Glow Attributes. The Optical FX attributes
used in this example are as follows:
Radial Frequency = 0
Star Points= 2
Rotation = 300
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Halo Attributes
Halo Color
The color of the halo. Click the color swatch to open the Color
Chooser and select another color if desired. The default setting is
white.
Halo Intensity
Controls the halo brightness. As the Halo Intensity value increases, so
does the apparent size of the halo effect. (The lights Decay Rate
controls how halo brightness decreases with distance.) The slider
range is 0 to 5. The default value is 1.
Halo Spread
Controls the size of the halo effect. Halo size is generally larger than
glow size when the Halo Spread and Glow Spread values are the
same. The slider range is 0 to 5. The default value is 1.
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Flare Intensity
Controls the flare effects brightness. (The lights Decay Rate controls
how the lens flare brightness decreases with distance.) The valid range
is 0 to . The slider range is 0 to 5. The default value is 1.
Flare Num Circles
Represents the number of circles in the lens flare effect. The valid
range is 0 to . The slider range is 0 to 30. The default value is 20.
If the Flare Num Circles value is very large, rendering times may be
long, especially if the Flare Min Size and Flare Max Size values are
large and the Flare Color is textured.
Flare Min Size, Flare Max Size
The size of the circles is randomized between these two values. The
valid range is - to . The slider range is 0 to 5. The default value is
0.1 for Flare Min Size and 1 for Flare Max Size.
Hexagon Flare
Produces hexagonal-shaped flare elements (instead of circles).
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Flare Length
Controls the flare effect length relative to the light location. If Flare
Length is small, all circles overlap the light. If Flare Length is large,
the circles spread out across the image. The Flare Length value has no
effect if the Flare Vertical and Flare Horizontal values are both 0. The
slider range is 0 to 1. The default value is 1.
Noise Attributes
See also Glow Noise.
Noise Uscale, Noise Vscale
Scales glow noise in the horizontal (Noise Uscale) and vertical (Noise
Vscale) directions. The slider range is 0 to 5. The default value is 1.
Tip
You can use Noise Uscale and Noise Vscale to create layered fog
or tall flames. Animate the Noise Uscale and Noise Vscale values
from high to low values to make the noise appear to fly apart
like an explosion.
Tip
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Cone
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Final Gather
These are descriptions of the options in the Final Gather section of the
Render Global Settings window.
Final Gather
Use this to turn Final gathering for global illumination on or off. The
default is off. Final gathering is a different means of calculating
indirect illumination. For more information, see Final gather and
HDRI on page 29.
Precompute Photon Lookup
This option (which also turns on Final Gather) causes photon tracing
to compute and store an estimate of the local irradiance at every
photon location. This means that far fewer final gathering points are
required because the photon map carried a good approximation of the
irradiance in the scene -- mental ray for Maya can estimate irradiance
with a single lookup, instead of many photons. In this case, photon
tracing takes longer than before and requires slightly more memory,
but rendering is faster.
Final Gather Rays
Controls how many rays are shot in each final gathering step to
compute the indirect illumination. The default is 1000 per sample
point, but this tends to be high for test renders (renders can take
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Note
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Tip
If you are rendering out a still image and are not changing the
Final Gather settings, turn this attribute off to save rendering
time.
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Tip
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Index
A
absorption, about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Active
Optical FX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Ambient light attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Ambient light source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Ambient Shade attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
animation, how glow works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Arc
Volume Light attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Area Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Area light attributes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Area light source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Area light, control soft light of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
area light, mental ray. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Area Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
automatic exposure
for glows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
B
Ball
Glow type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Halo type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Barn Doors
Bottom Barn Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
manipulator for spot lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Break
Light Links, Lighting/Shading menu . . . . . . . 46
C
Cast Shadows attribute . . . . . . . . 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 94
Casts Shadows attribute
Render Stats attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71, 72, 75
Caustic Accuracy, render globals . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Caustic Filter Kernel, render globals. . . . . . . . . . . 131
Caustic Filter Type, render globals . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Caustic Radius, render globals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
caustics
render globals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
rendering with . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
workflow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
caustics, about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Caustics, render globals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
center of interest
light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
manipulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Color attribute
Light Attributes .87, 89, 90, 91, 92, 94, 97, 99, 101,
102, 103
color bleed
tweaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Color Curves
description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 52
Color Curves attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
color, light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
colorRange
Volume Light attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
colour bleed, about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Cone Angle attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82, 102
Cone End Radius
Volume Light attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Cone Radius
manipulator for spot lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Create Light Set from Highlighted Lights option
Relationship Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Create Object Set from Highlighted Objects option
Relationship Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Curvature Tolerance attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
D
Decay Rate attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99, 101, 102
decay rates, custom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Decay Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
manipulator for spot lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Decay Regions, setting interactively . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Decay, about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
default lighting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
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Index
E
Emit Ambient
Volume Light attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Enable Default Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Enable Semi-transparent Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
End Distance1 attribute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
environments, creating glow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Exponential
Fog Type, point lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Glow type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Halo type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
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F
final gather
combining with global illumination . . . . . . . . . 69
troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Final Gather and Global Illumination. . . . . . . . . . . 30
Final Gather Falloff Start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Final Gather Falloff Stop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Final Gather File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Final Gather Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Final Gather Freeze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Final Gather Rays. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Final Gather Rebuild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
final gather, about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Final Gather, render globals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
final gather, rendering with . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
final Gather, store results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Flare Col Spread. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Flare Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Flare Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Flare Horizontal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Flare Intensity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Flare Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Flare Max Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Flare Min Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Flare Num Circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Flare Vertical. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Fog Intensity attribute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Fog Radius attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Fog Shadow Intensity attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Fog Shadow Samples attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . 83, 117
Fog Spread attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Fog Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
G
Global Illum Accuracy, render globals. . . . . . . . . 132
Global Illum Radius, render globals . . . . . . . . . . . 132
global Illumination
render globals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Index
global illumination
combining with final gather. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
render with . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
rendering separate pass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
workflow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Global Illumination and Final Gather. . . . . . . . . . . 30
global illumination, about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
global illumination, compared to local . . . . . . . . . . 13
global Illumination, render globals . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Glossy reflection, example of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Glow
Ball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Exponential. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Glow Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Glow Intensity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Glow Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Glow Opacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Glow Radial Noise. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Glow Spread. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Glow Star Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Lens Flare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Linear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Noise Threshold. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Noise Uoffset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Noise Uscale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Noise Voffset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Noise Vscale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Rim Halo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
types of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Glow Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
glow objects, adjusting size of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
glow, about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Graph Editor
color curves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
intensity curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
H
Halo
Ball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Exponential. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Halo Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Halo Intensity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Halo Spread . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Lens Flare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Linear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Radial Frequency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Rim Halo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Rotation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Star Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
types of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Halo Attributes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
halos
intensities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
halos, about. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
hard light. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
HDR image warning message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
HDRI, about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
HDRI, rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Hexagon Flare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
High Dynamic range images, rendering . . . . . . . . 70
High Dynamic Range Imaging, about . . . . . . . . . . 31
I
illuminated fog
creating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Illuminates by Default attribute 98, 99, 101, 102, 103
illumination, about indirect and direct. . . . . . . . . . 13
illumination, rendering sky-like . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Image Plane
creating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Index Manipulator
for lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
intensity
shader glow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Intensity attribute . .87, 89, 90, 91, 92, 94, 98, 99, 101,
102, 103
Intensity Curve attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
intensity curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19, 52
Lighting
139
Index
Inward
Volume Light Dir. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
IPR default light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
L
Left Barn Door attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Lens Flare
Flare Col Spread. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Flare Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Flare Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Flare Horizontal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Flare Intensity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Flare Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Flare Max Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Flare Min Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Flare Num Circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Flare Vertical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Glow type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Halo type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Hexagon Flare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Optical FX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Lens Flare Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
lens flares, about. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Light Angle attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84, 121
Light Centric Light Linking option
Relationship Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Light decay, about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
light fog
creating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
shadow problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Light Fog attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59, 109
Light Glow attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
light linking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Maya batch mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Maya prompt mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Light Linking option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Light Radius attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84, 121
Light Shape sample
for Spot lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
light, bounced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
light, irradiance as source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
light, optical effects for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
light, sources of direct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Lighting
140
Lighting
panel menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
lightlink command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
lights
Ambient Shade attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Cast Shadows attribute. . . . . 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 94
center of interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38, 97
creating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Decay Rate attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99, 101, 102
decay regions, for spot lights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
default . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
depth map shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
hard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Illuminates by Default attribute .98, 99, 101, 102,
103
intensity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
light fog effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
light glow effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
linking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
raytrace shadows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
shadow color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
soft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Spot light attributes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Spot light Light Shape sample. . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
type, choose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
lights, adjust attributes of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
lights, area of illumination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
lights, manipulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
lights, moving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
lights, photon emission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
lights, planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
lights, typical workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Linear
Fog Type, point lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Glow type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Halo type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
local illumination, compared to global. . . . . . . . . . 13
Index
M
Make Light Links option
Maya Lights menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Max Photon Depth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Max Radius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Max Reflection Photons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Max Refraction Photons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Maya batch mode
light linking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Maya prompt mode
light linking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
mental ray area light attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
mental ray Area Light, about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
mental ray area light, creating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
mental ray attributes, for lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
mental ray, caustics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
mental ray, color bleed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
mental ray, final gather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
mental ray, global illumination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
mental ray, HDRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
mental ray, participating media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
mental ray, photon maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
mental ray, photon tracing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
mental ray, set up raytracing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
mental ray, shadow maps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Min Radius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
N
Noise attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Noise Threshold, glow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Noise Uoffset, glow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Noise Uscale, glow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Noise Voffset, glow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
NoiseVscale, glow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Normal
Fog Type, point lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
O
Object Centric Light Linking option
Relationship Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
objects, photons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
optical effects, creating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Optical F X utility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Optical FX Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
origin
light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
manipulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Outward
Volume Light Dir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Overwrite Existing Dmap(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
P
panels, see shadows in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
participating media, about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
particles, global illumination of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
passes
global illumination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
penumbra
Volume Light attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Penumbra Angle attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Penumbra Radius
manipulator for spot lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
photon emission, turning on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Photon Map File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Photon Map Rebuild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
photon maps, about. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
photon tracing
limitations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
setting global overrides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
photon tracing, about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Photon Volume Accuracy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Photon Volume Radius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
photons
see distribution of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Lighting
141
Index
R
Radial Frequency
Halo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
radius
fog, for point lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Ray Depth Limit attribute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Raytrace Shadow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Raytraced shadows
description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36, 88
Raytracing
description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
raytracing
set up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Raytracing attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
reflection, about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
reflection, example of diffuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
reflection, rendering sky-like . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
refraction, about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 12
Region 1 attribute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Region 2 attribute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Region 3 attribute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
removing
shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
render globals
caustics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
global Illumination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
rendering
color bleed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
raytraced shadows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
sky-like illumination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
with final gather. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
rendering, default light while . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Lighting
142
S
Sampling
Area Light options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
scene views, see shadows in. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Select Lights Illuminating Object option
Maya Lights menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Select Lights Illuminating Objects option
Maya Lights menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Select Objects Illuminated by Light option
Maya Lights menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Set Editing option
Relationship Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Shader Glow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Shadow Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Shadow Maps
Lights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
shadow maps, mental ray. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Shadow Radius attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Shadow Rays attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84, 121
Shadows
Lighting menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
viewing hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Index
shadows
catching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37, 75
creating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
depth map. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
inaccurate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
light fog problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
raytraced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
removing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
transparent objects and. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81, 82, 83, 84
unexpected results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Shadows Obey Light Linking attribute . . . . . . . . . 79
shadows, about. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
shadows, control casting of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
shadows, in scene views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
shadows, produce raytraced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
shadows, render raytraced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
sky-like illumination, rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
soft light. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Specify Selected Lights option
Lighting menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
specular reflection, example of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Spot Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Spot light attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Spot light source. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Spot Light, barn doors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Spot Light, controlling circle of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
spread
fog, for spot lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Star Points
Halo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Start Distance1 attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
surface, light tranmission and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
U
U Divisions Factor attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Use All Lights option
Lighting menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Use Background
as stand-in geometry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Use Background material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Use Decay Regions attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Use Default Lighting option
Lighting menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Use Depth Map Shadows attribute . . . . . . . . . 72, 114
Use Dmap Auto Focus attribute . . . . . . . . . . . 82, 115
Use Light Position attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82, 116
Use Mid Dist Dmap attribute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83, 114
Use No Lights option
Lighting menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Use Only Single Dmap attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Use Previously Specified Lights option
Lighting menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Use Ray Trace Shadows attribute . . . . . . . . . . 75, 121
Use Selected Lights option
Lighting menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Use X- Dmap attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Use X+ Dmap attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Use Y- Dmap attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Use Y+ Dmap attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Use Z- Dmap attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Use Z+ Dmap attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
T
temperature, light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Top Barn Door attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
troubleshooting
lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
V
V Divisions Factor attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Visible
Area Light options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Volume light attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Lighting
143
Index
W
water, refraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Lighting
144